The Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India, is likely to set up a venture capital fund for investment in the food processing industry in the country.
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India, is likely to set up a venture capital fund for investment in the food processing industry in the country.
According to MoFPI sources, it is in talks with banks and financial institutions for the purpose of setting up a venture capital fund that will be in place with a corpus of around USD200m to USD240m in the financial year 2010-11.
The proposed venture capital fund will lend food processing units those who deal with perishable items like fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry and fish.
Top officials in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries met executives of the Reserve Bank of India, National Agricultural and Rural Development Bank and Small Industry Development Bank of India to discuss a three-point agenda.
These include credit flow to the food processing industry sector, modalities for creation of a separate vertical for FPI sector in the reporting format of banks and setting up of a venture capital for the food processing sector.
The ministry wants investments to come to the sector for plants, machinery and equipment along with research and development for new product development.
